Atule’er, a 200-year-old village in Sichuan province, made headlines around the world when photographs emerged in 2016 of schoolchildren descending the cliff on unsteady rattan ladders — or “sky ladders,” as locals called them.
This week, however, 84 households of Atule’er left the ladders behind for good, resettling in apartment blocks closer to the town center of Zhaojue county, 75 kilometers (46 miles) away, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Their new apartments range from 25 square meters (269 square feet) to 100 square meters (1,076 square feet), and have modern kitchens, toilets, running water, electricity and gas, according to state broadcaster CGTN.
“After moving to the county, life will be very convenient for my family. My children will go to school easily, and hospital services will be convenient too.”
Not all villagers have been relocated, however — about 30 households are planning to stay.
Atule’er has become a tourist attraction in recent years. In 2019, 100,000 visitors generated nearly 1 million yuan ($140,878) for the village, according to Xinhua. Further development will service that industry, with officials planning to build a cable car to carry tourists up and down the cliff, the state-run news site Paper.cn reported.
Eradicating poverty
The clifftop villagers’ resettlement is part of that broader drive, and they are not alone. Some 18,000 impoverished residents — or more than 4,000 households — have moved into the sprawling new urban housing development from 92 remote villages in the region, according to Xinhua.
The relocated Atule’er’s villagers were technically already out of poverty, with an average per capita income of 6,000 yuan ($845) last year — above China’s official 2019 poverty line of 3,747 yuan ($527). But the drive is also aimed at improving the living conditions of rural people with low incomes.
Source : Nbcnewyork